Fueling Strategy: Please fill as needed today/tonight, Thursday AM wholesale prices will remain pretty flat price wise – Be Safe
NYMEX Crude $ 53.11 DN $.2900
NY Harbor ULSD $1.6520 UP $.0014
NYMEX Gasoline $1.7417 DN $.0160
NEWS
Oil prices on Wednesday halted their longest streak of gains so far this year, as pressure from concerns over rising U.S. crude production outweighed support from the first weekly decline in U.S. crude supplies in a month.
May West Texas Intermediate crude lost 29 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $53.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices on Tuesday had settled at their highest level in about six weeks, marking a sixth straight session climb, amid expectations that major oil producers will agree to extend their output cuts into the second half of the year. June Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange shed 37 cents, or 0.7%, to $55.86 a barrel.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration early Wednesday reported that domestic crude supplies fell by 2.2 million barrels for the week ended April 7, after climbing in each of the previous three weeks. Crude stockpiles have only posted two weekly declines this year to date, according to EIA data.
The American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported a 1.3 million-barrel decline, according to sources, but analysts polled by S&P Global Platts forecast a climb of 125,000 barrels. “As imports remain crimped from the Middle East amid the OPEC production-cut deal, a draw has appeared earlier in April than we have typically come to expect,” said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at ClipperData. Gasoline supplies also declined by 3 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles were down by 2.2 million barrels last week, according to the EIA. Despite broad petroleum inventory declines, however, oil prices didn’t find much support. “Price action after an EIA report is quite tricky,” said Troy Vincent, an oil analyst at ClipperData. Prices were “pushing up against technical resistance” following the recent streak of gains, he said. “This helps dampen the influence of the fundamental numbers coming from the EIA.”
In a monthly report released Wednesday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said its member output continued to fall in March, but the group also said raised its 2017 forecast for supply growth in the U.S. by 200,000 barrels a day. “OPEC’s production cut has fanned a recovery for the U.S. shale oil industry,” Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets, told MarketWatch. And OPEC’s biggest producer of oil, Saudi Arabia, “has already suggested that the cartel should expand its production cut beyond its current expiry date.”
The EIA’s weekly report revealed a rise of 36,000 barrels per day in last week’s total U.S. crude production to 9.235 million barrels a day. In its short-term outlook report released Monday, the EIA said it expects to see record U.S. oil production in 2018.